You are here

Eastern Pennsylvania » The Inner Counties » Chester County » Coatesville and Vicinity » “Terracina,” Isabella and Charles Huston House

“Terracina,” Isabella and Charles Huston House

-A A +A
1848. 76 S. 1st Ave.
  • (© George E. Thomas)

The Lukens business stayed in the family when Rebecca Lukens's daughter Isabella married Charles Huston and was given a separate house adjacent to Brandywine Mansion ( CH26). It is a handsome Gothic Revival villa with a central wall gable framed with carved vergeboards and lighted by lancet windows with diamond-pane sash that show the influence of A. J. Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses (1850) even though this was scarcely the bucolic setting that Downing imagined. Elegant porches carried on iron columns contrast with the houses of the workers (who probably made the columns) and make absolutely clear the hierarchy of the mill. From its cast-plaster-ornamented ceilings to its chandelier by Cornelius of Philadelphia in the library, it was every bit the contemporary mansion and denoted by its fashion its connection to the urban center. Charles Huston played an important role in modernizing the steel industry, undertaking metallurgical research, establishing national standards (in line with the interests of the Pennsylvania Railroad), and providing for the welfare of factory workers.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
×

Data

What's Nearby

Brandywine Mansion, Lukens House
“Graystone,” Abram F. Huston House
Lukens Iron and Steel Company Offices
Lipkin Furniture Store
Coatesville National Bank

Citation

George E. Thomas, "“Terracina,” Isabella and Charles Huston House", [Coatesville, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-CH27.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 251-251.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,